I used to play gw2 a lot, but a slow internet connection and preparation for entrance exams made me stop playing it. the last time i played, the living story was in the part where there were invasions(when a whole map was full of enemies, sure was a lot of fun). a lot of things sure changed since then, can you help me catch up? especially on how pvp works now, i cant seem to grasp the concept
Guys, a little help about pvp?
Living Story changes every ~2 weeks, though we’ve had quite a long break between Chapter 1 (Scarlet) and Chapter 2 (Current) so over-all you likely haven’t missed too much. Make sure you log in every 2 weeks so the story unlocks for free (missed stories can be purchased I believe, but I haven’t had the need myself) They are now part of your Story Journal (questlog) in the Hero-Panel, be sure to check it out!
WvW had a new tournement with exclusive rewards (such as Mistforged Hero Weapons) and has a new one coming up for Autumn, currently nothing new though play-style wise. Unless you missed the Edge of the Mist introduction, which is a map made for in case the queue’s are full (popular place to grind experience/karma so it might not give you the WvW experience Borderlands/EB gives you.)
PvP has got quite a few changes. Most notably your PvE armor shows in PvP, how-ever Stat-wise it’s all about the Amulet, to modify your build go to PvP Build at the top of your screen in Heart of the Mist. Here you can select traits and runes/sigils/amulet exclusively for PvP.
They also added Reward Tracks. Dungeon Reward Tracks rotate weekly, unless you meet a certain requirement to permanently unlock them (usually doing the Story-mode of that Dungeon in PvE) There’s the unique Reward Track for the Balthazar Backpiece (unique to PvP) and Region Reward Tracks, new Regions unlock as you finish up the old Tracks. If you like certain skins, make sure you select the right reward track.
Not new but possibly helpful:
Hotjoins are the most casual form of PvP, you can pick your own server (or randomly join any server) and you can join/leave matches whenever, making it a more relaxed envoirment over-all, great for practice. (I won’t promise there won’t be some elitist here and there, and be careful of the so-called FARM-maps, they just want to grind the reward track, instead of actually PvP)
Arena’s tend to be a bit more serious since rating is attached. Solo Arena you get matched up with 4 other people against 5 completely at random, based on Rating. If you win you gain rating, if you lose, you lose some rating in an attempt to keep the matches as fair as possible. Be sure to not leave these matches, even a dc, if it happens too regular there’s a hefty dishonour debuff preventing you from entering PvP for a while.
Maps are mainly based around capturing points, often referred to as home/close (nearest to your spawn-point) mid (middle of the map) and far (nearest to the opponents spawn-point.) With a goal of keeping 2 out of 3 and scoring more points than the opponent (you gain points through kills, holding/capturing nodes and map objectives such as killing a Guildlord or channeling certain buffs.) I’d recommend wiki if you need more informations or just practice in hotjoins.
If you’re completely confused about which build to run I’d recommend looking at Dante’s Tournement build-list to get your started, but make sure to adjust them to your playstyle. I’m not sure how updated the list is, since I generally just watch what other people play and read the patch notes, but Dante’s lists got me started when I was new.
Goodluck!